Of all the baseless rumours swirling about regarding Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, one that fans felt they had pegged as fact was that Marion Cotillard’s character Miranda Tate (a Wayne Enterprises board member), was in fact villain Talia al Ghul. However, facts revealed in a recent interview with THR seem to indicate we were all wrong in our speculation.
Suspicion began when images and video popped up from The Dark Knight Rises‘ set, showing Cotillard’s character strutting her stuff with a band of armed men, and entering a camouflaged version of The Tumbler. Both of those actions seem contradictory to her character description.
The rumours were further spurred by announcements that shooting was taking place at a mysterious pit (thought to be the Lazarus pit; a restorative location in the Batman universe and favourite of The league of Shadows). Also telling was that Liam Neeson would be returning in a flashback as Ra’s al Ghul (Talia’s deceased father), and Josh Pence was cast as young Ra’s. Despite all of these tidbits seeming to add up to a perfect ten, Cotillard had other things to say:
[Miranda Tate] “…is fascinated by Wayne Enterprises. They go through difficulties, and she wants to help provide the world clean energies. She’s a good guy.”
So, there you have it. Unless Nolan’s version of Talia has some sort of conflicted, good-bad duality and comes to the side of good in the end (or she’s flat out lying to keep the twist under wraps), it looks as if fanboys can go back to speculating.
Everything will be answered when The Dark Knight Rises opens in theatres on July 20.
